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Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Western University

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Publications

2000

DNA

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Mrnas Encoding Aquaporins Are Present During Murine Preimplantation Development., H Offenberg, L C Barcroft, A Caveney, D Viuff, P D Thomsen, A J Watson Dec 2000

Mrnas Encoding Aquaporins Are Present During Murine Preimplantation Development., H Offenberg, L C Barcroft, A Caveney, D Viuff, P D Thomsen, A J Watson

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Publications

The present study was conducted to investigate the mechanisms underlying fluid movement across the trophectoderm during blastocyst formation by determining whether aquaporins (AQPs) are expressed during early mammalian development. AQPs belong to a family of major intrinsic membrane proteins and function as molecular water channels that allow water to flow rapidly across plasma membranes in the direction of osmotic gradients. Ten different AQPs have been identified to date. Murine preimplantation stage embryos were flushed from the oviducts and uteri of superovulated CD1 mice. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods employing primer sets designed to amplify conserved sequences of AQPs (1-9) …


Impact Of Bovine Oocyte Maturation Media On Oocyte Transcript Levels, Blastocyst Development, Cell Number, And Apoptosis., A J Watson, P De Sousa, A Caveney, L C Barcroft, D Natale, J Urquhart, M E Westhusin Feb 2000

Impact Of Bovine Oocyte Maturation Media On Oocyte Transcript Levels, Blastocyst Development, Cell Number, And Apoptosis., A J Watson, P De Sousa, A Caveney, L C Barcroft, D Natale, J Urquhart, M E Westhusin

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Publications

The objectives were 1) to investigate the effects of oocyte maturation in serum-free and amino acid-supplemented defined media on oocyte transcript levels, blastocyst cell number, and apoptosis; 2) to investigate the influence of oocyte maturation culture atmosphere on blastocyst development, total cell number, and apoptosis; and 3) to examine the influence of epidermal growth factor (EGF) during oocyte maturation on blastocyst cell number and apoptosis. The results demonstrate that blastocysts derived from in vitro maturation, fertilization, and embryo culture protocols undergo apoptosis but that apoptotic levels are not greatly influenced by the oocyte maturation environment. Amino acid supplementation of oocyte …